On June 15, 2008, San Francisco citizens signed a petition to the Elections Commission requesting voter equality. Because the current system leads to a political monopoly in cities and counties all across the nation, these eligible voters requested the change from winner-takes-all to elections that fulfill the constitutional promise of voter equality in their city of San Francisco, something never done in the United States before. Soon after, voters in Oakland requested voter equality both for their city and county representatives.

Requesting this change based on the 14th Amendment may eventually lead to all cities and counties in the nation having to follow suit and provide proportional elections, because that is what the Constitution delivers us: voter equality. Just by looking at the words winner-takes-all, we can all see without a doubt that locally our electoral system is not equality based. To view a clear case: look at the 2008 San Francisco outcome of the first presidential race after W, the least liked president ever, became president again. You will then know for certain that there are at least 13.2% Republican die-hards — a number translating into one in seven San Franciscans; local voters not represented by any supervisor on the local Board of Supervisors. One in eleven seats equals 9.1%, so how come no one is a straight-out Republican on the Board? Requesting local governments to provide us proportional elections is the first step to undo this unfair limitation of the electoral system. The Constitution says we should have proportional elections, because no other system ensures equality before the law.

Shown in these pictures above and below are citizens who signed the petition at the Last Laugh Cafe in San Francisco. Soon after, voters requested voter equality in Oakland, Alameda. For other people — who also want their local electoral system be changed into one that delivers proportionality — this may be a turning point for their electoral system.

In this image one can see how inequality increases dramatically by adding just one more governmental layer that functions on a premise of winner-takes-all, a system that does not subscribe to equality. According to our knowledge of the Constitution, the image to the left represents what is described in the Constitution: first a straight line of equality before the law, and next the depression of this line by the Federal and State levels that function according to lower standards. Some inequality is therefore included in the Constitution itself, but the Constitution does not provide wording that allows the additional depression of our equality at the local levels of City and County.

Would you go vote more often if the minimum odd of you picking your representative was 91.67%, or would you stay home during elections as often as you are now with you having that odd being 50.01%? In this image you can see the minimum guarantee of each system with eleven seats, and how much better your vote translates into your representative in proportional elections than in today's system.

What happened so far?

This far, the combined City and County of San Francisco has not done much with the voter request before them. Despite further efforts from our side to friendly educate the Elections Commission, you can read for yourself that they disavow their responsability to uphold the United States constitution by purposefully reading something different in our request. This means no action is taken by anyone in the City and County of San Francisco to ensure compliance with the United States constitution. Only the freedoms of the local legislation is stressed, no inquiry whether the city remained within the larger U.S. framework was made. The whole sequence of communications: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q.

As you can read about the reaction from the City of Oakland, the answer from them is not completely identical, but the message may ultimately be considered identical.

Naturally, one should not immediately expect a final answer, but informing the Elections Commission in San Francisco about your desire for voter equality — as promised by the constitution — is important; so strengthen the request for implementation of electoral equality before the law by sending a postcard: San Francisco: Fair City!

Please note that each person is free to copy the letter shown below, to sign it or to have it signed by eligible voters in your City or County. Then, send it out addressed to your local Elections Commission. It may be good to know that the request is not based on any person asking. Rather, it is based on the right given to us in the Constitution of equality before the law, while no prescription is given in the Constitution that allows officials to refuse delivering such system of proportionality at the local level.

The Document:

And yes, if you live in San Francisco, there is something you can do: San Francisco: Fair City! But if you live in another place, just copy the letter, sign it, and send it to your Elections Commission! Also, if you haven't heard about this in the news, you will understand how important it is to spread the news to your friends! Let them know that you value them as equal as yourself before the law, and ask them to send a postcard to the Elections Commission.